Optic viewing systems are of great importance for diagnosing eye diseases and also for surgeries inside of the eye. Two methods have here proven to be particularly advantageous. It is the ophthalmoscopy in the upright image, during which the viewer uses the optic eye system of the eye of the patient as a magnifying lens, and the ophthalmoscopy in the reversed image, during which an additional ophthalmoscopy lens must be used. Mirror images result with these two methods, which are created when light is introduced from outside into the inside of the eye, in the cornea front surface, and in the case of the method with the reversed image in addition on the surfaces of the ophthalmoscopy lens.
Known are a number of ophthalmoscopes and retina cameras, which have been designed in accordance with the reflex-free viewing principle. With these it is possible to reflex-free view the inside of the eye. They are also suitable for the diagnosis of eye diseases, which cause visible changes inside of the eye. Because of their complex design and their dimensions, such devices, however, cannot be utilized during eye surgeries. Surgery microscopes have been used in eye surgeries for several decades. These are stereomicroscopes of a weak enlargement, which enable an excellent viewing of the eye, however, only in the front eye section.
However, surgeons need surgery microscopes, with which they can view actions also inside of the eye. This is possible when a lens with a strong negative action is placed onto the cornea of the patient. An immersion fluid must exist between the eye and the lens. The action of the dispersing lens creates an image of the retina or of the inside of the eye at a distance, to which the microscope can be adjusted.
The endoillumination can be used to illuminate the inside of the eye, during which endoillumination a fiber-optic light conductor is guided through the sclera of the eye of the patient into the inside of the eye. The introduction of bodies of any type into the inside of the eye is always associated with great risk. An illumination from outside is therefore desired.
The purpose of the invention is to enable the viewing of an area of the inside of the eye, which area is as large as possible, whereby the viewed area is illuminated and no reflexes on optical surfaces result due to the illumination, no surgical procedure is needed for the illumination of the background of the eye, and the optic system is so small, lightweight and compact that it interferes neither during a presurgical or postsurgical diagnosis nor during a surgical procedure.